resetreality

Business Description

As far as my art goes, I dabble in everything. I do know that my practice has roots in meditation. This part of my statement still holds true: The real breakthroughs happen when you least expect them: under pressure, during banal conversation, in a meltdown. At first, these breakthroughs seemed random and unrelated to each other; for years it was this way. With all the blessings of persistence came the bittersweet burden of stubbornness. I was stubborn. When I thought I knew it all, my deaf ear haplessly sheltered my fears. After spinning wheels again and again, I conceded. The source of this perpetual cycle wasn’t coming from the outside. There wasn’t a satisfying answer that would neatly solve all my personal conundrums, so I went inward. I never knew it all to begin with and perhaps it was time to shut up and listen.

Lately, my art serves to observe the world; one moment, one pose, one subject at a time. Throughout the pandemic, online life drawing helped anchor my practice. I’ve had the honor to draw all types of people with unique stories and backgrounds because of this.There’s a certain magic that comes from observational work that I recently linked to hope. I recently discovered Rebecca Solnit’s book, “Hope in the Dark” and this part struck me in particular: “The work of [hope] requires people who throw themselves actively into what is becoming, to which they themselves belong. To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable.”

With all these thoughts of becoming, belonging, commitment, and power floating around in my subconscious, I went into a recent online drawing session a little bit braver and ready to face the rigorous work of creativity. That it’s the magic of all this I think: taking action helps us better understand the world around us. Back to Solnit’s book, “All that these transformations have in common is that they begin in the imagination, in hope. To hope is to gamble. It’s to bet on the future, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk.” Drawing from observation allows us to really see each other as equal, as human, as unique, as beautiful. It’s taught me that we all have power if we choose to wield it.

My art centers around two subjects: birds and people. A portion of my profits goes back into bird conservation nonprofits & social justice nonprofits.